Children

Shameful National Figures On Single Mothers In Poverty, And Veterans Who Are Homeless!

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Many conservatives love to claim that America is an “exceptional” nation, ignoring the facts that demonstrate just how backward we are, as compared to many European nations and Japan.

For instance, one third of single mothers are in poverty, doing minimum wage jobs that cannot support their children in an adequate fashion. The effect on their children of poverty is not easily measurable, but cannot be dismissed as insignificant. It promotes a sense of inferiority and depression in children at a very young age, and impairs their physical and mental health.

Also, veterans of our wars are horribly mistreated after their military service, with about 60,000 homeless on any single night, and double that total being homeless over a year’s time. Many are victims of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or are connected to substance abuse (alcohol and drugs). Forty percent are African American or Hispanic. Veterans who are homeless range from World War II, through the Korean War, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, the Iraq War, and the Afghanistan War, and many are younger veterans, who did their duty for their country, but are now being ignored and dismissed as having any claim on government services in return for their sacrifices.

Not only is this unconscionable and unethical, but it is also a danger to the nation, when people trained in firearms develop a feeling of hopelessness, which can lead to bloodshed and violence against fellow Americans out of desperation and mental illness.

If we continue to mistreat our veterans, as well as make victims of single mothers and their children, we are losing our long term future of peace and tranquility, and the pursuit of the elusive “American Dream!”

“Moderate” Conservatives And The Future Of The Republican Party

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Some observers have argued that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie performed “well” at his nearly two hour press conference, on Thursday, answering question after question from journalists about the Fort Lee I-95 scandal, blocking traffic for four days in September, and threatening the health, safety and security of tens of thousands of people all over the lack of an endorsement of the Fort Lee Democratic Mayor for the Republican Governor in the state election campaign.

The fact that Christie held the longest press conference of any politician in history, and spoke longer than the doomed President William Henry Harrison, who spoke an hour and a half when inaugurated in 1841, dying from pneumonia he gained from the rainy, cold weather, dying exactly a month later, is looked upon as a sign of stamina and accomplishment.

But there are many unanswered questions, and Christie is known to have a vicious reaction to critics in the state government, having fired some, and having taken from the State Senate President, Richard Codey, who has been Acting Governor several times, his security protection over a dispute. How petty and nasty this man is, and we already know how he has been disrespectful to teachers and parents and journalists, and revels in being a bully, which he denied, much like Richard Nixon said he was not a crook, revealing himself similarly as exactly that!

Christie could face impeachment or recall, and could be facing criminal prosecution, ironic for a man who was US Attorney, prosecuting and imprisoning others, sometimes unjustly, but making “corpses” on the way to power, with his arrogance and his swagger. It would be only “just desserts!”

But meanwhile, the right wing in the GOP is reveling in the realization that this comparatively “moderate” conservative, who was the frontrunner in many polls for the Presidency, and even led Hillary Clinton in some polls, looks now as if he has fallen on his own sword, as far as the Presidential race of 2016 is concerned.

So who can so called “moderate” conservatives turn to in stead of Christie?

Is there any Republican Governor who could be seen as a “moderate” conservative?

Is there any Republican Congressman who could be seen as a “moderate” conservative?

Is there any Republican Senator who could be seen as a “moderate” conservative?

The silence is deafening as every Republican officeholder today in Congress and the Governorships is far from a “moderate” conservative, other than Christie himself!

They are all “hook, line and sinker” tied to the Tea Party Movement directly, or afraid to challenge that right wing, anarchistic, libertarian movement that hates government, while they all make big salaries and take lobbying money in large amounts, while demonizing poor people, single mothers, children, elderly, veterans, and minorities, and pontificate how the world is coming to an end because of gay marriage! And of course, they are still promoting the “Birther” myth about Barack Obama, while hailing Canadian born Ted Cruz as legitimate to run for President, and loving that he resembles so closely the appearance and tactics of the late Wisconsin “witch hunter of Communism,” Senator Joseph McCarthy!

So who can moderate conservatives turn to?

There are only two realistic possibilities, with neither likely to get very far in the search for a Republican Presidential nominee, and therefore, the GOP is on the road to electoral destruction as a result.

Those two possibilities are former GOP Governors, who have a brain and credentials, but are hated by the extremists on the right:

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush
Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman (also Ambassador to China)

Bush has the problem that he is a “Bush”, and has been out of office since the end of 2006, and his brother, George W. Bush, ruined the family brand.

Huntsman has the problem that he is too damned intelligent and knowledgeable, is an independent minded Mormon with an open mind, and had the nerve to work for Barack Obama in China for two years! Imagine that!

Huntsman is, by far, the better of the two, but neither is likely to be a serious contender, and in fact, it could be that neither will announce. But if they do, the right wing talk show hosts, the Koch Brothers and their manufactured Tea Party Movement, and the think tanks will obliterate them, even as now they are celebrating the “political death” of Chris Christie, much too arrogant and abusive as he is!

But really, except for being somewhat more “moderate”, how is Christie really different from those to his right? Their personality traits and character are not really all that different to begin with!

So the GOP is worse off because of the Christie Scandal!

The War On Poverty DId Not Fail! It Was Destroyed By Republicans, Led By Nixon And Reagan!

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50 years ago today, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced a War On Poverty In America, and poverty levels dropped about 40 percent over the next five years.

But then the conservative counterrevolution began under Richard Nixon, and was accelerated under Ronald Reagan, and today, poverty is spreading in the aftermath of the Great Recession.

And what is the Republican Party doing about this reality? It is declaring the War on Poverty failed, and doing everything to kick poor people and middle class people down into the gutter, fighting against extension of unemployment compensation to desperate people, having no problem in cutting food stamps to people who have inadequate nutrition, and fighting to avoid raising the minimum wage, which, if it was keyed to inflation, would be over $20 an hour right now!

The War On Poverty never got a full chance to succeed, as Democrats Hubert Humphrey, George McGovern, and Walter Mondale never had the opportunity to continue the mission of LBJ, and instead, selfishness, greed, and lack of compassion for those less fortunate, set in!

On this 50th anniversary, it is essential to recommit ourselves to dealing with poverty in America, realizing the majority of people in poverty are children, and also a majority are white, not minorities, which are used as an excuse to promote racial prejudice!

Eric Cantor Declares War On The Unemployed And Poor: Bad Omen For 2014!

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Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who salivates to become Speaker of the House when John Boehner finally leaves, which may be this year, continues to prove how disgusting and disgraceful he is!

The only Jewish Republican in Congress, Cantor has become an embarrassment to open minded, compassionate Jews, who are shocked at his callousness and lack of concern for the unemployed and the poor.

Being a leading supporter of cutting food stamps, and against ever raising the minimum wage, he now has made clear that any extension of unemployment benefits, after the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, is off the table, and that means, unless it is somehow overcome by Boehner calling a vote and willing to let the Democrats gain the majority of the total vote for extension, that millions of unfortunate Americans, who have worked hard all their lives, but have suffered from the Great Recession and its aftermath, shall be left in a situation with lack of food, inability to pay rent, unable to get medical aid when sick or injured, and with their children and senior citizen parents being truly deprived of basic needs! And yet, all workers have contributed to their unemployment compensation, and there is as much right to that as to Social Security and Medicare!

How can anyone with a conscience do this to fellow Americans? How can such people sleep at night? All this will do is increase the number of deaths of people unable to meet basic needs, and it also is an obvious threat that some desperate people will turn to violence to get basic needs met. There is no justification for violence, but it does not mean that it will not happen.

What makes Eric Cantor tick? He needs, desperately, a mental examination, as he is a man of mean spirit and lack of compassion, not native to the Jewish or any other religious spirit!

Proper Move For Obama, Mrs. Obama, And Biden To Boycott Sochi Winter Olympics!

Ronald 1 Comment

It is the proper moral and strategic move for President Obama, Michelle Obama, and Vice President Joe Biden to boycott personal attendance at the Sochi, Russia Winter Olympics in February.

The move of the Russian authorities to deny basic rights to their gay population is an outrage which endangers gays individually and in families, and it is the new civil rights movement, and the United Stares rightfully must do everything required to take the proper stand on this violation of human rights.

The abuse of gays and lesbians goes on in many nations, but America must not sit on the sidelines, as it did for a long time on the issue of race, and as it did on the issue of anti semitism, which led to the Holocaust of World War II.

Just as we must speak up on the rights of women, labor, the elderly, children, and the poor, we must not allow any government or religion to think they can win the day as we ignore their violations of basic human rights.

If we only had the ability to decide not to compete in the Olympics as a protest, but Obama has decided that it would penalize athletes, both straight and gay, if we did what Jimmy Carter did regarding the Moscow Olympics in 1980, which was boycotted by the US over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

So instead, the official delegation to the Sochi Olympics will include well known gay athletes as the response to the abuses of human rights by Vladamir Putin. And if it worsens the relationship between Russia and the United States, so be it, as Russia is backing the mass slaughter in Syria, another outrage that we must oppose vehemently and with vigor!

Let us hope that gay athletes win a lot of the medals at the Sochi Winter Olympics, as that would be the ultimate triumph!

Ronald Reagan Myth Of “Welfare Queen” Being Revived By Republicans And Conservatives: Still A Massive Lie!

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Before he became President, Ronald Reagan kept perpetuating a massive lie, far more than Barack Obama and ObamaCare, despite claims that Obama is the most massive liar of any President!

NO, it is a tie between Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, with Reagan simply more charming and charismatic, so Nixon tends to be regarded as the greater liar because of Watergate!

But Reagan lied about Iran-Contra in 1986, claiming he had “no recollection”, and able to get away with it due to his charm, and the thought that, as an aging President, he would be given a pass, although some thought he should be impeached for that scandal, as well as others, making his administration one of the most scandal ridden Presidencies, right behind Nixon, Warren G. Harding, and Ulysses S. Grant.

But even before the scandals of his Presidency, Reagan developed in his mind, and came to believe, that there was a “Welfare Queen”, of course an African American in Chicago, who was collecting dozens of checks monthly, and scamming the “welfare” system.

This was a lie from day one, but it resonated, and was used by conservatives to condemn the poor, implying that they were all too lazy to work, and were just drinking and taking drugs and living off hard working whites.

The fact that most people on “welfare”, meaning food stamps and Medicaid and unemployment compensation are white, are single mothers with children, and many work, but make inadequate income working for minimum wage (such as at Walmart and McDonalds and such places like them), is ignored, and it has become an attack on the poor, as if they wish to be poor, and also provoke working class whites against minorities.

Meanwhile, as the move is on to cut food stamps and unemployment compensation, and in red states deny expansion of Medicaid, and also deny an increase in the minimum wage, the vast majority who are being harmed are white working class people who continue to vote Republican, not understanding that it is them who are being condemned by the term “Welfare Queen”.

The term “Welfare Queen” is a massive lie, and was a massive lie when Ronald Reagan used it to attain the Presidency! Reagan either knew it was a lie, or was too incompetent mentally to know that he was telling a lie that he had convinced himself was the truth. And this is a President to admire and emulate, as a great President, when he set out to harm those who were down and out for his own advancement? Give me a break!

13 Years Since “President” Al Gore Failed To Be Elected!

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It is hard to believe that it is now 13 years since Vice President Al Gore, who won the national popular vote by over half a million vote margin, failed to be elected, due to the intervention by the Supreme Court, the vast majority selected by Republican Presidents, who chose to intervene, defying the idea that the judicial branch of the federal government had no authority to decide who wins the Presidency.

Therefore, a precedent was set that could reverberate and lead to another election in which the wishes of the people of the United States could be ignored, and we could end up with a President who represented special interests, a reality becoming more evident with the growing power and influence of right wing elites, who are having great success in undermining the desire of the American people to prevent the destruction of the middle class, and the degradation yet further of the working poor, the disabled, the elderly, and children.

When one realizes that a Gore Presidency would likely NOT have started a war in Iraq; and would have promoted domestic reforms that would have avoided the greater maldistribution of wealth to the extreme it has become, due to the economic policies of George W. Bush, it is hard not to mourn what occurred 13 years ago, which has certainly harmed the long term future of the nation!

War Against The Elderly: The Most Vulnerable In Society!

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So now not only has Michigan decided that retired employees in Detroit, who devoted their lives and safety to their work, shall see their pensions cut, but the state of Illinois, governed by Democrats, has enacted legislation to the same effect!

Normally, the power of legal agreements prevents such action as to cast the elderly, on a fixed income, out to the wolves! But no more by the power of courts and legislatures and governors to defy the law and get away with it!

As one retired employee in Detroit said yesterday, he has to decide between eating and his medication come next year.

This is unconscionable, and shows the lack of respect for the elderly, and for life itself!

Already, there has been an attack on poor children, taking food out of their mouths, through cuts in food stamps. But the thought that maybe poor women should have access to birth control and abortion, so that they and future children might avoid poverty and deprivation, never crosses the minds of those who insist all life in the womb, from conception, should be born, but then to hell with what happens after birth!

If Michigan and Illinois can destroy public pensions for the elderly, what will stop many other states from doing so, rather than facing the facts that the wealthy have been ripping America off with the help of conservatives and Republicans, who have no problem subsidizing the wealthy and corporations, but do not give a damn for the poor, the sick, the young, the elderly, women, and workers?

With all of the progress of the progressive movement, the New Deal, and Great Society, we are now witnessing a return to a true Gilded Age, a return to a century and a half ago, effectively wiping out the 20th century movement toward humane, compassionate government!

Now it is back to laissez faire, Social Darwinism, dog eat dog, no concern for those less fortunate, and Democrats are starting to act like Republicans, all so that the wealthy do not have to pay taxes in a fair, honest way!

How can one have any optimism about the future of the “great experiment” known as American democracy?

And imagine with all of the reality described, how much tougher it is if one is African American, Hispanic, Native American, or disabled?

What has happened to our souls, our ethics, our morals, as we honor the almighty dollar, and fight over “things” on Black Friday and even Black Thanksgiving?

The middle class is being ground down to the level of poverty, as a small elite takes all of the wealth of America, and now wants to privatize EVERYTHING, including our national parks, in the almighty quest for profit and MORE MONEY, never enough, a level of materialism enough to make one want to vomit!

Cuts In Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Food Stamps): Is This The Moral And “Christian” Thing To Do?

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The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Food Stamps), promoted in a bipartisan way by past Senators George McGovern (D) South Dakota and Bob Dole (R) Kansas, both nominees of their party for the Presidency, was designed to make certain that children, single mothers, the disabled, veterans, and the elderly would always have help in providing a decent amount of food for their nutrition and health, as hungry people get sick more often, and it undermines growth and accomplishment of children in particular.

A country which would allow its unfortunate poor to starve, to have inadequate nutrition, while at the same time providing subsidies to corporate farm interests is a country in spiritual trouble!

The average food stamp recipient receives $133 a month, about $1.50 a meal. Can anyone seriously believe that they can afford to eat at such a low cost? What it means is that toward the end of the month, there is no money for food, and children go to school hungry, and adults get sick from hunger and lack of nutrition.

Is this the moral and “Christian” thing to do? Apparently, Paul Ryan and Michele Bachmann and other Republicans are very eager to deny the poor the basic sustenance of life, while also opposing them gaining any health care coverage! So a new cut in food stamps is about to go into effect at the end of business today, despite Democratic attempts to prevent it. The average recipient will lose $36 per month of their present allotment!

And these and others in their party are insistent that women MUST carry pregnancies to term, but once a child is born, to hell with whether his or her mother has the ability to feed them and keep them healthy!

So the goal is to make them poor, keep them poor, and make sure the rich continue to gain tax cuts and benefits at the expense of the poor!

Are Paul Ryan and Michele Bachmann and others “good Christians”?

This is the hypocrisy of so called “religious” people who, unlike other good hearted Christians, fight against the message of their faith, to care about the poor, and do nothing to harm them. Shame on them!

The Destruction Of The Middle Class And The Working Poor By The Republican Party

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Republicans and conservatives do not want to admit it, but since the age of Ronald Reagan, they have effectively decimated the middle class, and heaped scorn on the poor.

This is reprehensible, particularly when they profess belief in God and call themselves “good Christians” as they work to slash food stamps for single mothers, children, the disabled and the working poor; oppose any rise in the minimum wage; support exporting of jobs to third world nations by greedy corporations; undermine respect for women and their basic human rights; and promote nativism and hate for ethnic minorities, as they try to survive in a nation rapidly becoming less white and Protestant by the day!

As it is, they are still able to convince struggling whites in the South and the hinterland to vote their fears, and blame all their troubles on the poor and the minorities, and progressive initiatives to help the working poor and the middle class.

But in the long run, this is a losing strategy, as now the GOP, allowing the KNOW NOTHING Tea Party Movement to have growing influence, are totally alienating the young, women, minorities, labor, gays, and educated people who care about their fellow man and woman.

So the Republican Party is rapidly becoming a dinosaur, and Ted Cruz and his buddies in the libertarian movement and the Tea Party crowd are destroying any hope of a future for the party of Lincoln, TR, and Eisenhower. They are rapidly becoming part of the dustbin of history!